Word: chord
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Davidson now seems to be working toward a synthesis. There was a tonality in most of the numbers. But its emphasis was slight enough so that melodic improvisations were not heard solely in relation to the key--or chord movement--as they are in conventional jazz. The instruments played together, unlike last year when they would start and end together but go off in their own rhythmical directions in the middle. Still, there was no "beat," and I don't think I noticed any foot tapping in the audience. Although Davidson's compositions could hardly be called tuneful, there were...
...clarinets--phrased things well in the many interchanges. It is too bad, then, that several instruments failed at critical moments: the tranquille violin solo going sour, wrong notes spoiling a cello phrase, the horns (after hitting everything else) slurping the octave in their famous solo, an oboe flatting a chord, and most obtrusively, a trumpet missing its jarring D-flat (as if the Don were stabbed with a broken sword.) But these little disasters were exceptions, due probably to nerves...
Less excusable was the orchestra's refusal to play a true pianissimo, depriving Strauss's tragic chord of most of its mystery. And often inflections betrayed caution and over-literalness, such as in the excessively elongated eighths of the horn-calls. Fortunately Don Juan is a rondo, which means that what goes wrong the first time can be corrected the next: The intonation of the violins and the precision of the brasses both improved rapidly...
...onstage. The music was infectious, the staging deft, and the singing bearable. The Choreography Committee had a sense of humor. The tunes were surprisingly good, and even if some were stolen, they were stolen with taste, the same way Anthony Newly does it. Arrangements a la The Fantasticks and chord progressions from jazz standards...
...there is little likelihood that the farm mess will be solved in the near future. Any substantial answer lies elusively between the extremes represented by Charles Shuman and Willard Cochrane. The Shuman Farm Bureau approach, calling for complete freedom in the marketplace, strikes a deep emotional chord but runs head-on into economic and political difficulties. Cochrane's solution, a farmer-proof system of mandatory production controls, defies the character and political power of the farmer...